Willpower is an idea imposed on people to imply they "should" be able to do, on their own, something they haven't been successful doing in the past.  It's used by experts to sell books, by friends and family to "motivate", and often by us . . . to beat up on ourselves.

Since discovering the Law Of Attraction I've realized that the idea of using willpower for long term change is a superstition.  The very idea that we can, through force of will alone, take a situation we have struggling with and compel ourselves to change it, as far as lasting change is concerned. . . for me is a fantasy.  It will work for a while.  However if we put our faith in it, it can contain a hidden insidious price tag.  It creates an illusion of motivated control that really doesn't exist, and certainly doesn't last. 

I spent many years of my life chasing illusive ideas of the willpower I'd been told I "should" have possessed and all it ever did was leave me feeling inadequate, alone and even more frustrated.  Every attempt at using willpower alone chipped away at what already was my fragile sense of self-worth.

What I've finally come to realize is that willpower actually works against LOA, because the essence of willpower is the motivation to doggedly fix something considered wrong or broken.  It's simply loaded with resistance.  It is the epitome of forcing ourselves to not do something we want to do, or to do something we don't want to do. 

Willpower is fine for remembering to take out the trash this week, it will spur us to leave ourself a note or put the garbage can somewhere we have no choice but to move it before we go to work . . . but it won't create a lasting change in our relationship to the act of taking out the garbage.  It won't make it something natural and easy to remember. 

Willpower is entirely about forced action.  Initially it feels powerful, because it contains a burst of passionate feelings based on resistance . . . it motivates us. However, it's nothing that is sustainable long term.  While it can be a reasonable short term answer to small unimportant desires . . . for substantial and lasting change on important subjects we need substantial and lasting tools.   

"Take the time to line up the Energy first, and action becomes inconsequential.  If you don't take the time to line up the Energy, if you don't find the feeling place of what you're looking for . . . not enough action in the world will make any difference."  Excerpted from an Abraham-Hicks workshop in San Diego, CA on August 3rd, 1997

LOA tells us the way to create lasting change is to change how we feel about the subject we want different in our lives. 

My blessed parents gave me many conflicting messages (out of love, they were just passing along the accepted advice which had been passed down to them.)  They both always told me "don't get too excited (get your hopes up, etc.), we don't want you to be disappointed".  My Mother also always told me "you are so strong, you can do anything you set your mind to". 

Quite a dichotomy there . . . the strength of the first statement for me pretty much invalidated my ability to use or even deeply comprehend what she meant in the second one.  What I've realized now is just how much of a dichotomy there is between those two statements, and has been in my own soul. 

Because the only way to "do anything you set your mind to" is by getting excited about it . . . by getting your hopes up . . . by becoming so passionate about whatever it is . . . to have a strong, clear and allowing vibration regarding it, that you know disappointment is irrelevant.  Your desire must come to you.

I believe my Mom always saw the dichotomy in me as well as the strength.  That's part of why she nicknamed me Tigerlily.  I just don't think she understood it, and certainly didn't have any idea how to teach me to deal with it.  However she has (both my parents have) given me the loving foundation to figure it out for myself and succeed.  What more can one ask of parents?

For me, I'm going to relegate the whole idea of willpower to where it rightfully belongs.  I'm going to use it when I need it for important things like . . . well come to think of it, I can't imagine anything I will ever bother to use willpower on again.  Even the simple things are too important to leave up to an idea with so little sustainable passion.  I have bigger, better tools in my life.

I figure even taking the garbage out to the curb each week is an act that deserves me aligning with it.  Seeing how wonderful it is to have curbside pick up.  How nice it is to put out a full can at night and magically find it empty the next day.  How good I feel about recycling cans, bottles and plastic just by setting them out at the road.  How hard the people on the truck work for me.  How great it feels to exchange dollars for something I certainly wouldn't want to do myself.

Yep, I figure everything in my life deserves my passionate consideration and outlook.  Especially my body, my health and my life itself.

Blessings,
Tigerlily

"Let your action be inspired from your positive picture, not from your negative picture.  As  you focus upon that which makes you feel good, you will find yourself acting more and more out of joy.  And as you are acting joyfully, more of the things that you want will easily flow into your experience . . . for you will not be blocking your own action with your negative feeling."  Abraham-Hicks Excerpted from the book A New Beginning II pages 133 -136